How to Increase Engagement and Grow Your List with Podcasting

As you well know, Content Marketing is one of the best ROI investments you can make in your business. There are companies, websites, and strategists springing up everywhere preaching the benefits of content marketing. According to the Content Marketing Institute 80% of B2B businesses have a content marketing strategy.

This report from the B2B Marketing Community on LinkedIn says that 72% of marketers have a content strategy in place. The results of this report were based on a survey of 600 businesses in 2014, so the numbers have only grown for this report. There are also quite a few other interesting statistics such as only 30% of these marketers have a documented strategy. Even though, documented strategies turned out to be 36% more effective.

The top forms of content marketing are blogging, social media, and case studies. However, in this particular study only 7% of those surveyed were using podcasting as a form of content marketing. That leaves about 93% of these businesses missing out on one of the fastest growing and highest converting forms of content marketing.

This is the biggest reason that starting a podcast today can help your brand stand out from the crowd. Reaching your audience in a new, fresh way is a great way to separate yourself from your competitors.

Our friends at Edison Research have been keeping tabs on the growth of podcasting. There has been a steady uptick for the last 10 years reaching 36% of those surveyed as having listened to a podcast. This is a healthy 98 million people with a lot more room for growth.

They also surveyed 1000 of those listeners and found that 65% of fans are willing to purchase products and services they hear about on podcasts.

Even though new podcasts are springing up everyday, there is still tons of room for growth.

It’s also easier to engage and connect on a personal level through podcasting. People can hear and feel the emotion in your voice during a podcast. Storytelling is one of the most popular methods for connection and engagement, and podcasts are the perfect medium for telling a story.

Podcasting is a growing medium, that engages listeners, and has high conversion rates. Taking advantage of podcasting as a form of content marketing can make sense if you have the resources to do so. The barrier to entry for creating a podcast is not high, but it does take time and effort. Especially, if you are interested in producing a quality show.

At Podcast Motor, we share information for DIY podcasters as well as offer a full podcast production and editing service. You can find DIY articles on our blog, and on our About.com page. You can also read this article to help decide if a podcast editing service is for you.

Since this is Grow your Email List month at ConvertKit, we would like to talk about how to grow your email list using a podcast.

How your podcast can grow your email list

We consistently see 6 ways that the top brands are growing their list through podcasting.

Leveraging Other Shows’ Audiences

Podcasts are about conversations, and it takes two to tango. Most interview based shows are always looking for interesting and dynamic guests. So don’t be afraid to approach shows with a large audience that’s similar to your own. Tapping into these audiences is a great way to share your message with a whole new crowd.

When pitching a show to allow you to come on as a guest, make it easy on them. Give them 3 potential topics you could speak on, and why they would be interesting for listeners of the show.

During the show make sure and mention a special gift that listeners of the show can check out. This can be a report, ebook, video, or any other sort of material that the audience would find useful that pertains to the topic you’re discussing.

Set that landing page up before the episode recording so you have that URL handy during the show. Also, make sure to design that page with lead capture in mind.

Content Upgrades

The value of content upgrades in growing your email list has been well documented. These are a great way for you to offer that extra bit of value to readers, just in exchange for their email address.

Fortunately content upgrades work great in podcasting too.

Each episode after you’ve written your show notes think about a way you can repurpose that content into a checklist, form, or infographic that will be valuable to your listeners.

Special Content for Subscribers

This is a favorite of mine. One of the great things about podcasting is it’s 100% free and open to anyone. But, sometimes we want to reward our most loyal audience members.

What better way than releasing special content just to email list subscribers?

If you have a particularly good episode, or that brilliant preroll segment that you want to save for later this is the place to use it.

Let your listeners know that every once in awhile you’re going to release a gem of an episode not on your normal podcast feed, but just in email to your existing subscribers. Give them a hint about a few examples you have planned, so they know what to expect.

Podcast Specific Opt-ins

One of the blogs that we are lucky enough to work with is ProBlogger. Darren Rowse does an amazing job with his calls to action. He has a large yellow subscribe button on the bottom of his show notes page.

When the button is clicked on the subscriber gets a form where they enter their email, and in return they get free blogging tutorials. The yellow stands out, the subscribe form is simple and to the point, and Darren refers to the show notes during the podcast pointing out the URL and the links and resources that are available on that page.

Q&A Episodes Only Available to Subscribers

Even the most prolific shows need a change of pace sometimes. An occasional Q&A episode is a great way to mix things up and offer a different feel for your podcast.

An approach to this we’ve seen work really well is to let your listeners know that a Q&A episode is coming up soon, and you’ll be asking for those Questions in your next weekly email newsletter.

Stress that only subscribers to your newsletter will be able to submit questions for you to answer live on the show.

During the show always remember to give a shout out to everyone who wrote in. Everyone loves a shout out on the podcast!

Podcast Website Design

To grow an email list, it’s best to start with engaging content and build trust. Having a podcast in addition to a blog can vastly improve your reach.

Once you have connected with your audience having a strong call to action and a list building strategy in place is essential.

ConvertKit is a wonderful tool to use with a list building strategy. It is an all in one email marketing tool that is simple and easy to use, yet the functions are very powerful.

ProCaster is a theme that has all of the design and functionality that a podcaster will need already built into it. Including integrated email lead captures, social sharing, tweetables, and an integrated media player.

No need to cobble together endless plugins and special code. We’ve done the heavy lifting for you.

At Podcast Motor, we are trying to simplify podcasting the way ConvertKit has simplified email marketing.

Emma is a lover of words, technology, and nature with an avid curiosity about business, entrepreneurship, and psychology. These interests create the perfect storm of content creation and long walks outside. She also dabbles in design, programming, and Indie book publishing. You can contact Emma at Insomnicats.com or follow @EmmaNelson2015 on Twitter.